External SSD for running Reason?

[ionly]

Cheers mate, I've just read that and will probably go for the Samsung 850 EVO 250GB internal SSD (within my price and I don't need a huge amount of storage)

You should really look into over provisioning; it essentially suggests you allocate like 40% of your overall drive space to over provisioning. So your 250 is gonna be more like 150...

Thanks for the advice, I didn't know that was an important consideration. I had a quick overview today on the subject and it's becoming clear, but I need to research a bit more this evening. 150 is still good even after over-provisioning (I backup regularly)

Cheers

[Gorgon]

Cheers mate, I've just read that and will probably go for the Samsung 850 EVO 250GB internal SSD (within my price and I don't need a huge amount of storage)

You should really look into over provisioning; it essentially suggests you allocate like 40% of your overall drive space to over provisioning. So your 250 is gonna be more like 150...

Not necessary at all. Just stick the thing in and go.

[plaamook]

Cheers mate, I've just read that and will probably go for the Samsung 850 EVO 250GB internal SSD (within my price and I don't need a huge amount of storage)

You should really look into over provisioning; it essentially suggests you allocate like 40% of your overall drive space to over provisioning. So your 250 is gonna be more like 150...

40% is excessive in my experience but I'd def shoot for free space. 10-20% or something. I've seen (other people's...) comps grind to a halt over this sort of thing.

[GRIFTY]

20-40 is an acceptable range. my opinion is to scrap the ssd plans and upgrade that CPU, that thing is certainly your main bottleneck in this system

[syncanonymous]

20-40 is an acceptable range. my opinion is to scrap the ssd plans and upgrade that CPU, that thing is certainly your main bottleneck in this system

It's a laptop

[syncanonymous]

https://www.kingston.com/us/ssd/overprovisioning

28% for Write Intensive; 7% otherwise... according to Kingston
I don't claim to be an expert at all

personally, I am prepared to switch out/replace SSDs more often because the performance enhancement is that fantastic
I have a couple of machines with newer SSDs; one has over-provisioning set pretty high; the other none

[GRIFTY]

20-40 is an acceptable range. my opinion is to scrap the ssd plans and upgrade that CPU, that thing is certainly your main bottleneck in this system

It's a laptop

it's an old, slow laptop with too few cores to comfortably handle complex reason 10 projects. no amount of boot speed is ever going to change that

[syncanonymous]

it's an old, slow laptop with too few cores to comfortably handle complex reason 10 projects. no amount of boot speed is ever going to change that

Core i3 330 doesn't mean one has to stop working! I am still chugging along on an i3 370m laptop. Does the OP & I wanna be working on an outdated machine? No, but the budget is going for other things for the moment.

OP made no mention of complex Reason 10 projects. The boot speed is a MASSIVE boost in workflow, period. Of course there is no improvement in DSP; but playing in midi performances & orchestrating can be done just fine....When you run out of DSP, optimize or start another composition.

Sometimes, you have to work with what you have got until you can budget the computer to run such complex projects. 100 currency units on a SSD is a much better plan than buying RAM or almost any other computer component because it will be useful when you do upgrade

I think the term "old" (which the OP did use) is an unfair representation of the situation; outdated is much more concise. Is my 40 year old Byrdland less of a guitar than a new one because it is old? On the contrary, vintage is in fashion and might be considered better than a modern Gibson. Discounting others for using outdated gear to produce creations is not helpful. We are doing the best we can with what we have now. OP cannot go wrong with buying a new SSD.

[GRIFTY]

i'm not discounting him! his system is more than enough for simple projects of say, a few samples and some thors. but i'll wager that europa and the like will cripple that poor old i3. in my opinion the funds would be more smartly saved and invested as soon as possible in a new CPU, with whatever implications that acquisition means. a new laptop likely would already have an SSD. or, OP could consider building a budget desktop and sacrificing mobility. an adequate-to-powerful desktop PC for Reason 10 could be had for less then $500 if you do your research

[syncanonymous]

Hey, man, we can agree to disagree. OP cannot go wrong buying an SSD in this situation, IMO.

My last project was 50 devices on 30 tracks, which is my limit with my i3 which includes a lot of automation (70+ lanes); all 50 devices not playing at the same time, either. Before I got an SSD and max RAM on this i3 laptop my device count was more like 30 tops and always 17 mixer channels was the max. I have to steer away from Pulverizer and Combinators...too many Echos or Alligators can bring things to a halt too. I only use Combinators to save device groupings and their routings and then uncombine when I am composing. very occasionally I will use a few Combinators, but no more than 4. The main difference I have noticed is being able to have more SSL mixer channels and more automation that I could have before. I can't verify that claim though....it might have just been the set up of those songs.

The noiselessness and lower running temps are critical for me, too, like I said before...and a dealbreaker.

As far as I have seen, computer prices have gone up since last month's Coffee Lake non-launch. I want to be able to be free to throw anything at my DAW work, so it is waaaay beyond time for me. I have a windfall coming in soon, so I plan on going dual Xeon. Until that money hits the bank, I have to keep using what I have. I feel like I can relate to ionly's situation since our laptops are pretty similar spec.

[Gorgon]

it's an old, slow laptop with too few cores to comfortably handle complex reason 10 projects. no amount of boot speed is ever going to change that

You have absolutely no clue what you're talking about. Please stay out of the discussion.

[GRIFTY]

I actually do. I routinely use three different systems, one of them runs on one the fastest SSDs you can buy and the other runs on a pitiful old mechanical drive. Apart from start up speed, you'll hardly notice a difference. You would notice much more performance upgrade from a new processor, imo it's just not worth it to spend money on that old thing when you could invest it in something better.

[Gorgon]

I actually do.

If you think that the only benefit from an SSD is "booting up faster", then no, you have absolutely no clue.

[ionly]

Cut the yappering, gordamnit, I need a bigger track count. Just fkg tell me how to do it, alright?

[GRIFTY]

Sounds good, let me work with you lol. By no means am I trying to discourage anyone. I'm a system builder and work in IT. What kind of tracks do you work with most? Audio/samplers or software synths? Do you use lots of effects? SSD is not going to drastically help with either tbh but it may help with your overall system speed when working with projects that have a shitload of audio, be it samples or recordings. If you want to use more synths, then you're going to need a new CPU, there's no way around that. An SSD is going to do f***all for synth tracks

[ionly]

Seriously, limitations are probably why I actually seem to finish things these days, and not tweak like a madman to all hours (like I used to). My old drive rattles from years of abuse and now induces bouts of paranoia (thus, I backup regularly). Time for change. If I get some improvement in performance, nice. If not, I'll be sleeping better anyway. And not tweaking tooo much

[ionly]

Sounds good, let me work with you lol. By no means am I trying to discourage anyone. I'm a system builder and work in IT. What kind of tracks do you work with most? Audio/samplers or software synths? Do you use lots of effects? SSD is not going to drastically help with either tbh but it may help with your overall system speed when working with projects that have a shitload of audio, be it samples or recordings. If you want to use more synths, then you're going to need a new CPU, there's no way around that. An SSD is going to do f***all for synth tracks

I want to do graphic stuff, so I'll probably have to invest in a desktop at some point anyway. I've a close friend who builds them as a hobby -
I've considered the challenge, but it would be trial and error.

Cheers mate

[Gorgon]

Sounds good, let me work with you lol.

Yeah do that. Knock yourself out with this guy. This guy who has absolutely no clue about what an impact a conventional harddrive has on regular system performance. Who doesn't understand bottlenecks. This guy who thinks that "MOAR COARS" is what's important. While all you asked was advice on using a harddisk. Yeah, that's the guy you want to listen to.

Also notice how he says "lol".